Mary Poppins (Disney) (1964)

Mat POP 2C HIGH JINKS on the rooftops of London are performed by Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke and a lightfooted corps of chimney sweeps in the choreographical high spot of Walt Disney's ‘Mary Poppins.’’ The musical-fantasy, in Technicolor, also stars David Tomlinson and Glynis Johns. Walt Disney Performs Now Rare Feat Of Creating an Original Film Musical The original film musical has long been one of Hollywood’s most popular and successful forms of screen entertainment but, in recent years, this type of motion picture has become increasingly rare. Now, Walt Disney is bringing to the screen “Mary Poppins,” a musical fantasy starring vivacious Julie Andrews who makes her movie debut in the title role, and Dick Van Dyke, one of Hollywood’s brightest new personalities. The Disney feature is the first completely original film musical to come along in some time and could easily start a whole new trend, reviving this type of screen entertainment. With the advent of sound, the movie musical came into its own through such memorable hits as “The Broadway Melody” (the first musical to ever win an Academy Award), “Sunny Side Up” and “The Gold Diggers of Broadway.” The ensuing years produced such tuned-up extravaganzas as “42nd Street,” “Flying Down to Rio,” “Top Hat,” “Footlight Parade,” ‘Born to Dance,” “On the Avenue,” “Holiday Inn,” Julie Andrews, Bright Star of the Musical Stage, Makes Triumphant Screen Debut in ‘Mary Poppins’ Julie Andrews, one of the brightest musical comedy stars of Broadway and the London stage, makes her motion picture debut in the title role of Walt Disney’s musical-fantasy, “Mary Poppins,” fulfilling a dual ambition — to play the delightful governess heroine of the famed ‘Mary Poppins Stories” by P. L. Travers and to try her hand at filmmaking. A professional since she was twelve, Julie astounded the theatre-goers at this tender age when she stepped onto the stage of the London Hippodrome in the “Starlight Roof” revue and sang an operatic aria in her clear, young soprano voice. Not only did the revue enjoy a long run but it firmly established the talented Miss Andrews as a performer with a great future in the theatre. Other revues, concert tours, guest appearances on radio and television, followed, but it was while appearing in a pantomine of “Cinderella” at the London Palladium that Julie’s big break came. Vida Hope, who had produced and directed the London production of the hit musical, “The Boyfriend,” was searching for an actress to play the lead role on Broadway. Julie was approached and reluctantly accepted since she had never been out of England or away from her family and friends before. She was asked to sign for a two-year run but insisted on a one-year contract. “TI knew I would be terribly homesick, in a strange country, among strange people, but “Mother Wore Tights,” “Cover Girl,” “Meet Me in St. Louis” and a succession of “Big Broadcast,” ‘Broadway Melody” and “Gold Diggers” musicals, starring perennial favorites like Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Eleanor Powell, Alice Faye, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Betty Grable, Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth. Following World War II, Hollywood was influenced by the European trend toward more realism in movie-making. The concensus of opinion was that the great struggle had so personally touched the public that its taste for the light and fanciful had changed in favor of more serious and profound screen entertainment. The realistic soon tended toward the sensational and seamy. Audiences began clamoring for lighter fare. Musicals and comedies once again became the vogue, but hits established on Broadway took precedence over musicals written purely for the screen. Original film musicals have been few and far between. Stephen Vincent Benet’s novel, “Sobbin’ Women,” was set to music by Johnny Mercer and Gene DePaul and became the Jane Powell-Howard Keel starrer, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.” It was acclaimed by the press and public as one of the freshest, most delightful musicals ever turned out by Hollywood. In “Mary Poppins,” Walt Disney has taken the “Mary Poppins” books by P. L. Travers and fashioned a delightfully different and entertaining musical. Writers Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi adapted the original story and contributed to a bright and breezy screenplay. Tunesmiths Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman have composed fourteen original song's, all of hit parade calibre, and Disney has assembled some of the _ brightest names from Broadway, Hollywood and the London stage for ,his brilliant cast. In addition to Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, popular English comedian David Tomlinson and Glynis Johns are starred, with Hermione Baddeley, Ed Wynn, Elsa Lanchester, Reginald Owen, Arthur Treacher, Jane Darwell, Reta Shaw and moppet stars Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber, rounding out the stellar line-up. Filmed in brilliant Technicolor, “Mary Poppins” was directed by Robert Stevenson and co-produced by Bill Walsh for Buena Vista release. DISNEYLAND COMIC HELPED LAUNCH JULIE ANDREWS’ SINGING CAREER Every one of the many thousands who have seen Wally Boag go through his gun-shooting, teeth-popping, balloon-blowing act in Disneyland’s Golden Horseshoe Revue will agree this is a mighty accomplished young man. But how many people know Wally’s greatest accomplishment? Fifteen years ago he pointed to a slight little girl among the audience in the vast London Hippodrome and invited her up to the stage. It was all part of the act, but no one was ready for the brilliantly clear tones of the aria the little girl sang. For she was Julie Andrews, aged 12, and — quite accidentally — this was her first day as a performer. She was immediately signed to a run-of-the-show contract and thus launched on a fabulous career that would bring her to the world’s attention as the delightful Miss Liza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady”; as Lady Guinevere in “Camelot,” and ultimately as the beloved English nanny and in the title role of Walt Disney’s musical motion picture, ‘“Mary Poppins.” Julie was born in Walton-on-Thames, a little town near London. Her parents’ divorce when she was very young brought her a step-father who would soon determine she had a great voice and to see to its training. He was Ted Andrews, musician and singer. The discovery was made during World War II when Ted and Julie’s pianist mother, Barbara, decided singing lessons would serve well to keep the child’s mind off the conflict around them. “T hated it — loathed it,” Julie recalls, “but it was suddenly certain that I had a freak voice, with a range of four to five octaves. A throat specialist made the diagnosis. I was a child possessed of a completely adult larynx.” Julie’s vocal training continued as she traveled around the province with her parents, whose musical act had made them the toast of the music halls. This backstage life gave Julie her first taste of show business, but her first professional appearance did not come until her surprise discovery in the audience of the Hippodrome. Other revues, concert tours, guest appearances on radio and television followed, but it was while appearing in a pantomime of “Cinderella” at the London Palladium that her first big break came. She was seen there by the producer-director of the hit show, “The Boyfriend,” and asked Mat POP 1C ONE MAN BAND—Versatile Dick Van Dyke adds a touch of humor to each aspect of the many-sided role of Bert in Walt Disney's ‘‘Mary Poppins.”’ Van Dyke stars with Julie Andrews in the musicfilled fantasy. to play the lead role in the New York company. Julie’s Broadway bow was a brilliant one and paved the way for her future successes. The rest is now theatrical history. = ©1964 “Mat POP 1A Mat POP 1B JULIE ANDREWS, as her charming self, and as the beloved heroine of Walt Disney's musical-fantasy, ‘‘Mary Poppins.” Miss Andrews scores a triumph in her screen debut in the Technicolor production based on the Mary Poppins books by P. L. Travers. She stars with Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson and Glynis Johns. if worse came to worse, I was hopeful I could stick it out for a year,” Julie recalls. Towards the end of a very successful year in “The Boyfriend,” Julie received a call from a representative of composers-producers Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. They were preparing “My Fair Lady,” a musicalization of George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” and were interested in Julie for the role of Eliza Doolittle. They were under the impression she had a run-of-the-play contract but were delighted to know her commitment was almost up. She auditioned for the role and was signed immediately. Upon leaving the company of “The Boyfriend,” Julie returned to London to visit her family and then planed out to Hollywood for a television special of Maxwell Anderson’s “High Tor,” co-starring with Bing Crosby. With twelve weeks off before the start of “My Fair Lady,” Julie enjoyed another holiday in England with her folks before returning to New York and five gruelling weeks of rehearsals. The play opened out of town to rave notices and when it bowed on Broadway, the acclaim was overwhelming. The rest is theatrical history, for the musical enjoyed one of Broadway’s longest runs. After two years in the New York company, Julie returned to England to play the captivating Eliza for eighteen months in the London run of the show. During this engagement Lerner and Loewe were preparing their next production, ‘“Camelot,” with Julie in mind to play the Lady Guinevere. When “Camelot” bowed on Broadway, it too was acclaimed an immediate success. And Julie’s portrayal of the stately Guinevere was as memorable as her delightful Miss Doolittle. During one of the performances, she received word backstage that Walt Disney was in the audience and would like to call on her after the show. Their conversation revealed he was preparing a film musical of “Mary Poppins” and would like her for the title role. Bill Walsh Does Double Duty for Walt Disney’s ‘Mary Poppins’ For a guy who wrote songs, plus gags for Mickey Mouse, plus advertising and publicity, Bill Walsh makes a pretty good Walt Disney co-producer-writer with the kind of blockbuster credits like “The Shaggy Dog,” “The Absent Minded Professor,” “Bon Voyage” and “Son of Flubber,” that any movie-maker would be proud of. This affable gent, with a penchant for hard work and endless quips, recently completed the happy process of tying together the thousand loose ends of Disney’s sparkling musical motion picture, “Mary Poppins,” probably the longest-lived, most tenacious in the studio’s history. Walsh not only co-produced the Julie Andrews-Dick Van Dyke starrer with Walt, he cowrote it with Don DaGradi, a story man par excellence borrowed years ago from the cartoon people. The Walsh touch has been in evidence around the studio since the late forties when he won a national ad contest and got hired by the publicity department where, among other sidelines, he began writing for the Mickey Mouse comic strip. He wrote Walt’s first big Christmas television show in 1950, did it again in 1951, and thus helped found the original series of hour-long shows called Disneyland. A great many other assignments followed, including the vastly successful Davy Crockett shows and feature, and the massive job of putting together the daily, hourlong Mickey Mouse Club, the latter so well done that it is on the air again and going stronger than ever on a coast-to-coast syndication basis. Then came many more movies. The Walsh character can probably best be defined by Bill’s reputation around home-town Cincinnati, where he is still remembered for the wild black bearskin coat he wore and the still-in-use Purcell high school anthem he wrote, “Onward Cavaliers.” A football scholarship got him to the University of Cincinnati with an eye to become a chemical engineer. As time went by and he got to writing school musicals with pal Ed Birnbryer and to hearing from former classmate Ty Power in Hollywood, Bill’s eye for chemistry grew jaundiced. Frank Fay and Barbara Stanwyck, passing through town on their way to Broadway with a thing called “Tattle Tales,” caught a Walsh-Birnbryer show, invited the pair along to New York as “Tattle Tales” music men, and wrecked the original Walsh dream. But the show folded. Birnbryer decided to become a New Yorker anyway and Walsh, thoroughly bitten by the Hollywood bug, went west to become one of the most all-around competent young men in filmdom. Filmed in brilliant Technicolor and based on the Mary Poppins books by P. L. Travers, “Mary Poppins” stars Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson and Glynis Johns. Robert Stevenson directed the Buena Vista release. Page 5